Spacecraft Missions Sent to Explore the Space Enviroment

Ulysses Mission: The Ulysses mission is a joint NASA and European Space Agency spacecraft with the goals of studying conditions present near various latitudes of the sun. The spacecraft has already flown over the poles of the sun twice, gathering valuable information. The Ulysses spacecraft was designed to gather imporatant information regarding heliospheric magnetic fields, heliospheric radio and plasma waves, solar wind plasma, energetic particles, galactic cosmic rays and cosmic ray components. Other programs are focused on studying cosmic dust and interstellar neutral gas, solar x-rays and cosmic gamma-ray bursts. Scientists have also been able to conduct radio science expirements through the Ulysses probe. Recently, the Ulysses mission was extended in order to allow the spacecraft to do a third solar pole flyover in 2007 and 2008.
More information can be found on the Ulysses ESA Site or at the Nasa Ulysses mission Site.

Voyager Missions: The Voyager missions, Voyager 1 and 2, were originally sent to gather information about outer planets in our solar system such as Jupiter and Saturn. To this day, they are the only spacecraft to visit Uranus and Neptune. Currently, they are about farther away from the solar system than pluto. Scientists are hoping now to use the voyager spacecraft to send back valuable information about solar wind conditions on the outer boundries of the solar system. Currently, NASA uses data from the Voyager spacecraft to conduct studies within 5 primary investigation teams. These include Magnetic field investigation, Low energy charged particle investigation, Plasma investigation, Cosmic ray investigation and Plasma wave investigation. NASA hopes to continue gathering space wind information so long as the instruments on board function.
More information can be found on the NASA Voyager Site.

IMAGE Spacecraft: The IMAGE Spacecraft was launched in February 2000 aboard a Delta Rocket. The IMAGE project is managed at Southwest Research Institue (SwRI). Its mission is to return magery of high-energy particles and electrons that make up the Earth's Space Enviroment. The goal of the IMAGe Spacecraft is to explore how solar storms can cause significant changes. The craft updates scientists on the groand every 2 to 5 minutes. This allows scientists to watch the movement and energies of particles over time. Scientists are also able to take a look at the Earth's magnetosphere. Using this valuable information, scientists hope to improve space forcasting to allow better warnings to protect sensitive satellites as well as equipment on the ground.
More information can be found on the NASA IMAGE Site.

SOHO Mission: The Solar and Heliospheric observatory project is a join venture by NASA and the European Space Agency. The purpose of the project is to study the structure of the sun, its atmosphere and the origin of solar winds. The SOHO mission has allowed scientists to discover unique solar features on the sun such as solar tornadoes. The SOHO spacecraft also provides extensive daily images to scientists around the world.
More information can be found on the NASA SOHO Site.

Cluster Mission: The Cluster mission consists of 4 spacecraft. These spacecraft fly in unison around the earth, collecting detailed information about how the solar wind affects the earth. Scientists hope to use data from these spacecraft to discover exactly how the earth's magnetosphere and the solar wind interact. The 4 spacecraft allow this interaction to be studied from a 3D perspective.
More information can be found on the ESA Cluster Overview Website.

UARS Mission: The Upper Atmospheric Research Satellite (UARS) was designed to study in detail the overall dynamics of the upper atmosphere. The satellite contains 9 scientific instruments designed to study the chemistry, dynamics and energy output of this region. The goals of the satellite are to study how atmosheric components and components from space sources such as solar wind interact and change in the upper atmospheric regions.
More information can be found on the NASA UARS Mission Site.

Wind Mission: The Wind Mission is part of NASA's Polar Wind Geotail Project. The goals of the the Polar Wind Geotail Project are to "To develop a comprehensive, global understanding of the generation and flow of energy from the Sun through the Earth's space environment (geospace) and to define the cause-and-effect relationships between the physical processes that link different regions of this dynamic environment." - Alexander and Nishida, 1984. The scientific goals of the wind mission are to study the near earth solar winds and study particles present in this wind.
More information can be found on the NASA Wind Spacecraft Site.





Information compiled by David Gonzales. All information and photos are from the respective NASA or ESA website.